Professor of Arabic and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University. I previously served as Chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at George Mason University and spent a number of years as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at San Francisco State University. My academic journey began in Cairo, where I studied classical, pre-Modern, and modern Arabic literature at ‘Ayn Shams University. I later earned my PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, I've been fortunate to travel widely across the Middle East, Europe, and North America, experiences that have shaped my understanding of cultural and intellectual traditions. My research interests are centered on Qur'anic Studies, postcolonial Arabic literary theory, and the history and culture of the modern Arab-Islamic world. I also have a deep interest in colonial and postcolonial studies, as well as French and Egyptian cinemas. I've been honored to receive two Fulbright Scholar Awards, opportunities that allowed me to further my research and share my work in different cultural contexts. My work has appeared in a range of scholarly journals, such as der Islam, SCTIW Review, Journal of Arabic Literature, Arabic Studies Journal, Journal of Comparative Poetics, the American Historical Review, and Boundary 2. Among my recent publications is God's Other Book: The Qur'an between History and Ideology (University of California Press, 2024). Additionally, I coauthored "A Bridge Too Far? Ludovico Marracci’s Translation of the Qurʾan and the Persistence of Medieval Biblicism" (Boundary 2, 2023) with Christopher Livanos. Other less recent publications include The Qur’an and Modern Arabic Literary Criticism (Bloomsbury, 2018), and Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt (Cambridge UP, 2018).

Literature

Arab Studies

Cinema/Film

Comparative

Islamic Studies

19th-21st Centuries

Arabic

Classical

7th-13th Centuries

Egypt

Islamic World

Mediterranean Countries

Arabian Peninsula

Europe

Mod Arabic Lit

Classical Arabic

Quranic Studies

Arabic (native)

English (native)

French (advanced)